Report: Complete 2012 WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony Recap

This year’s ceremony started quite surprisingly as many empty seats seemed apparent on the lower levels. Arena staff seemed to be taking people from the higher levels and moving them further down on to the empty seats. A sight which is quite worrying, and the lack of major traffic outside the Arena when compared to the Miami Heat game all made sense when we got inside.

The show kicked off with Jerry Lawler introducing Ron Simmons as the first inductee. Lawler introduced JBL who came out and began to tell some old stories about him being on the road with Ron and all his accolades throughout his career. He also made a small negative mention towards not being able to swear as they are no longer in the attitude era and also not needing a creative writer to help him introduce his friend.

Ron Simmons came out and thanked his fellow wrestlers and family for all the respect they have shown him.

Alberto Del Rio came out and introduced his Uncle Mil Mascaras out. Mil Mascaras didn’t come across very well over the speakers but he thanked the crowd for being able to wrestle all over the world.

Dusty Rhodes came out and introduced the Four Horsemen. In the process he became quite passionate about using the term Professional Wrestling rather than Entertainment. The Horsemen came out and JJ Dillon spoke first, followed by an emotional Ric Flair who thanked everyone in WWE for inviting him to be involved in the weekend. Next was Barry Windham and Tully Blanchard. Tully explained that he lost his Father less than a week ago and his memorial service is on Monday. He thanked his family and then passed on to Arn Anderson. Arn’s crowd reaction matched if not bettered Ric Flair’s. Arn praised the current talent and explained that the current crop of talent and legends like Triple H and Undertaker will never be matched again.

Shawn Michaels and Triple H came out next to introduce Mike Tyson. Both had fun and Triple H kept mocking HBK by explaining a story of one time where HBK missed one of Tyson’s fights because he was parking Triple H’s car. Triple H also kept making fun of HBK being knocked out by Mike Tyson at WrestleMania 14. Both HBK and HHH could not fight back smiles and laughter during this segment and created a funny atmosphere before Tyson came out. When Mike Tyson came out he was hard to understand and at one point he tried to copy John Cena’s ‘You can’t see me’ hand gesture, only for his Hall of Fame ring to come off his finger which he had to pick up.

The Uso’s came out and spoke fondly of Yokozuna and their family heritage. They became emotional but told a funny story of being small children when Yokozuna debuted and they argued he was not their Uncle because the man on TV was Japanese. They introduced their Father Rikishi who came out and spoek fondly of Yokozuna the man as well as the competitor.

Christian came out to induct Edge. Christian became very emotional about how Edge only ever wanted to become a WWE wrestler to be able to buy his Mum a home to live in because they were going through very hard times. Then he lightened the move by explaining that at School they used to use a square room at the bottom of some stairs as a wrestling ring. Christian then said that Edge has never grown up and had recently broken in to the school and security cameras had got footage of his actions. To our surprise Christian then played footage of Edge bouncing off some walls at his school and acting out wrestling moves. Christian explained that Edge had sent him that video and he was going to never send him anything ever again after he realised he used it tonight.

Edge came out and showed off his new haircut. He hugged Christian for a long time and then embraced the crowd whilst filming them on his camera. Edge explained lots of old stories which involved Rhyno, Lance Storm and Christian. He praised and thanked all of the talent and also told a funny story of how he made Undertaker’s eyes roll in to his head for real after he smelt some of his bad gas on a trip for the tribute to the troops. Edge also used the titantron to show some funny pictures and make fun of talent. He also became emotional when talking about his Mum. Edge demanded the Hall of Fame music to be changed for the end of the show and some Rock music played to close the show.

At the end of the show, all inductees and presenters came back on the stage to wave to the crowd.